Chapter 10
“What are you looking at?” Octavia asked, sitting in the other rolling chair.
“I’ve been thinking about getting a cat,” she said.
“Really? Let me see.”
She handed over her phone. Octavia scrolled through the shelter website and clicked on one. “Oh my god, this one’s name is Taco,” she said.
“Too young. I want one that’s like four or five. Do cats run away?”
“I have no idea. Probably.”
Clarke peeled an orange as they discussed the cats on the website. She had been considering a pet for a while. A dog required more time than she could give. It would be nice to go home to something other than complete silence. A cat would be easier to deal with than another person.
“I like the black cats,” Clarke said before eating an orange slice. “Especially the ones with green eyes.”
“Like the Hocus Pocus cat, right?”
She shrugged. “Never seen it,” she said.
“What? Clarke, that should be a crime.”
Lexa came in through the emergency bay with her black leather backpack over one shoulder and two coffees in her hand. She sat one on the counter in front of Clarke. After reading the label, Clarke realized the order was her usual from her favorite coffee shop near her house. Lexa had gone out of her way to place the order.
“What… what is this?” Clarke asked.
“A coffee,” she said. “The most complicated order in the world, but a coffee, nonetheless. I called Raven to see what you liked, but I’m sure she’s with Anya. Thankfully, the woman behind the counter already knew your order. Fairly sure she has a crush on you.”
Clarke heard the words but could not comprehend them. “You got this for me?” she asked.
“Yes,” she said. “I knew you were working a double.”
“Thank you. That was… nice of you.”
“You’re welcome, Clarke. I’ll change really quick for rounds.”
Clarke watched her walk away until she disappeared into the locker room. Octavia cleared her throat. Her eyebrow was raised when Clarke faced her. Clarke grabbed her coffee, stood, and started for the breakroom. She smiled.
“Dr. Griffin,” Marcus called. He maneuvered between gurneys and nurses in the hall. “You got a second?”
“Yeah,” she said. “What’s up?”
“There’s more medicine missing. More opiates. We’re having a camera installed in the pharmacy soon, but I’m getting more concerned. It started a month ago. I mean, what changed then?”
Lexa had started a month ago. It was the only difference in the emergency room. She had been alerted to the problem during the last board meeting. More than a few pills had been taken in the past month. She had promised to investigate the problem and had asked every nurse if they knew of anything but came up short. No one knew who could be taking the pills without permission. Every nurse and doctor had their code to unlock the pharmacy, but someone had used a nurse’s code who was out on parental leave. They put a hold on the code until the nurse returned.
“Whose code are they using now?” she asked.
“That’s the problem. There’s nothing out of the ordinary. Someone is using the codes of nurses on the floor,” he said.
“That’s smart if it’s true. It would be hard to track. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to figure it out besides staying in the pharmacy. Do you think it could be someone from IT? They know the codes. It started a little while before someone hacked the systems, too.”
“I’ll talk to the manager up there, too. If you see anything out of the ordinary, let me know.”
“I will.”
Lexa was standing in the hall when she heard tires squeal and a loud crash. She rushed to the sound along with every other available staff member. A car had wrecked into an ambulance while the paramedics were unloading a patient. There was a paramedic down, another attempting to resuscitate the man on their stretcher, and an unconscious young teenager in the driver’s seat of the severely damaged car. When she pulled open the driver’s side door, she noticed a woman lying across the backseat, also unconscious. Blood was pouring from a hole in her chest.
“Jesus,” she muttered. “I need someone over here now!”
Lincoln attended to the boy while she climbed into the backseat. She pressed her hands to the wound to stop the bleeding as much as possible. Her heart was barely beating. Blood continued to flow but not as much. She assumed the problem was a GSW. The boy must have decided to drive himself without a license. Cops would arrive in a few moments and bother the hell out of her until they left. She would spend the next hour or two in surgery anyway.
“Someone call Raven,” Lexa shouted. “I need her to assist. I think the bullet hit her heart.”
“She’s on her way,” Clarke said.
Lincoln and Lexa managed to remove the woman from the car. She climbed on top of the woman’s torso to keep pressure on the wound. Her hands and arms were covered in the woman’s blood.
“Are you scrubbing in?” Clarke asked.
Yes,” she said. “Want to assist until Raven arrives?”
“Yeah, Indra’s getting the room ready now. We’ll go straight there.”
Sirens alerted the staff of the police’s arrival. She was not excited about her interview which would have to wait. Bellamy Blake strolled through the emergency room as if there was not a woman dying in her arms. Her annoyance with him was entirely her fault. He openly liked Clarke and everyone in the hospital wanted them to date. She had heard the rumors after her first interaction with the detective.
“That scene was insane, right?” Clarke asked as they scrubbed their hands and arms.
Lexa watched the blood circle down the drain. “Yes,” she said. “I wonder how they’re related. She looks too young to be his mom. Too old to be his girlfriend.”
“I’m sure Bell will figure it out.”
“Hopefully.”
The bullet was difficult to remove. Her lungs and heart were damaged. Thankfully, the lungs took more of the hit than her heart, but Raven would need to repair the main valve if she had a chance of recovering. Lexa was worried about the long-term effects because of the severe blood loss. The blood bank had brought up three bags for the surgery. She requested more halfway through.
“I’m here,” Raven said, taking Clarke’s spot.
Lexa filled her in on the situation while continuing the reconstruction. Clarke stayed for a few minutes before leaving to check on the other victims. She imagined the boy would need stitches and a head CT but nothing surgical. She had no idea about the paramedic or person inside the ambulance.
“How many cops were out there?” Lexa asked.
“Like five,” she said. “I’m sure they’ll be here for a while. Sorry I missed your call earlier.”
“Oh, it’s fine. How’s An?”
Raven smirked. “Good,” she said. “Even better now.”
“I’m sure,” she said. “I’m happy for you both. I’m not sure if I’ve told you that.”
“You haven’t but I figured you would be. How’s Clarke?”
Lexa shrugged. “Seems fine,” she said.
“She called me last night. They're thinking it could be any day. I'm worried about what’s going to happen when it does.”
Lexa sighed. She was also worried about Clarke and her reaction to Jake’s death. How does one prepare for the death of a parent? She knew what it felt like to lose a parent but her dad had died suddenly. She had no time to prepare or stress over when it would happen. There was also the guilt Clarke carried for not spending enough time with him or trying to spend too much in the last few days to the detriment of her sanity. Then, as Raven mentioned, there would be regret.
“She saw through me when I tried to talk to her,” Lexa said. “She knew it was coming from you.”
“Aren’t you worried?” she asked.
“Not for the reason you are. I think work will help her. She can’t help her dad, but she can help every person who comes into the emergency room. It's her way of dealing.”
Lexa solved most of her problems with work. She wanted to do more to help Clarke with the grieving process but doubted her help would be desired. She feared the woman would become even more distant than she already was.
“Then what are you worried about?” Raven asked.
“I think I would be a bad friend for not worrying about everything that comes with losing a parent,” she said.
“Oh, you two are friends now?” she asked.
Lexa shrugged but there was a small smile on her face beneath the mask. “I brought her coffee this morning,” she said. “I think we’re moving in the right direction.”
Her smile made Raven happy.
Bellamy leaned against the counter. Clarke was updating a chart while explaining what she knew about the earlier scene. The boy was the woman’s nephew, she learned. He had driven her to the hospital rather than wait for an ambulance. He was only fourteen. Thankfully, Bellamy did not plan to press charges against the boy for the accident since it was an emergency. He believed the DA would feel the same way.
Thankfully, the woman had survived the surgery and was currently being admitted to the ICU. The paramedic was in a trauma room to be monitored but would, most likely, be released later according to Clarke. He was glad there were no more serious injuries.
“I guess I’ll have to get back to work soon,” he joked.
Clarke sat back to look up at him. “I’ve been here since six am, so I get it,” he said.
“We should hang out this weekend. Do something that isn’t… this. I’ve been wanting to take my boat out. I haven’t gotten the chance to this year.”
“I’m working this weekend.”
“Another time then. See you later, Clarke.”
Octavia caught him in the bay. She ran to catch up before he climbed into his cruiser. “Didn’t even want to say hi, huh?” she asked. “Too distracted by Clarke, I guess.”
He shrugged. “She works this weekend,” he said. “But she did say we could do something another time.”
Harper overheard the conversation. She told Murphy who told Alie who told Jasper. Unfortunately, the story changed with every retelling. By the end of Lexa’s shift, Jordan and Echo were talking about Bellamy and Clarke going on a date in the locker room. She was disheartened by the news but happy the woman would be doing something besides work every second of her life. She selfishly wished she was the one who got the same opportunity.
Clarke was standing in the bay when Lexa exited the hospital. Clarke smiled when their eyes met and slid her phone into her scrubs pocket.
“Sorry we didn’t get to talk much today,” she said. “But I wanted to say thank you again. That was really nice of you.”
“I was glad to do something nice for you,” Lexa said, shrugging.
“You don’t have to do anything for me.”
“I know. I wanted to.”
“Well, thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Clarke.”
There was a look in her eyes that Lexa could not decipher. She wanted to believe the emotion was something positive, but she had read too much into their interactions thus far. But Clarke was impossibly beautiful and smart and successful and kindhearted. She felt different when they were together. She felt good.
“Get some sleep, Clarke,” she said.
“Yeah? What even is that?” she joked.
They smiled at each other once more before turning in opposite directions to go home.